Many vehicles are equipped with rear or front mounted receiver hitches used for towing of vehicles and as an attachment point for many other cargo accessories. These types of receiver hitches typically include a receiver opening or cavity used for the receipt of a drawbar. Receiver openings come in various sizes—the size may depend upon the towing capabilities thereof. For example, receiver-type trailer hitch assemblies are offered with a generally square receiver opening of 1¼ inches (32 mm) for Class I/II and 2 inches (51 mm) for Class II/IV/V.
A drawbar having a shank includes outer dimensions slightly smaller than the internal dimensions of the receiver opening and is slidable within the receiver opening. The drawbar is typically connected to the receiver opening by a pin inserted through the two tubular portions thereof and locked or clipped to prevent removal of the drawbar from the receiver hitch. The two components are both toleranced to ensure that the drawbar can be freely inserted and removed from the receiver opening.
The shank of the drawbar may include an aperture and the receiver hitch may include a correspondingly shaped and aligned aperture through which the pin or lock may be inserted to operatively engage the drawbar with the receiver hitch. The lock may be used to generally prevent an unauthorized user from removing the drawbar from the receiver hitch.
However, apertures of different drawbars and receiver hitches may not be consistently the same—especially for receiver hitches of different classes. For example, the apertures of the drawbar and receiver hitch may be ½ of an inch or ⅝ of an inch in diameter. This may require that a user have either a separate lock pin for both ½ of an inch and ⅝ of an inch apertures or utilize a lock pin having a ⅝ of an inch sleeve that slides over the ½ of an inch pin lock to operatively engage the applicable apertures.
Unfortunately, however, this sleeve often gets lost or misplaced when not in use. Further, a user may inadvertently use the ½ of an inch pin in a ⅝ of an inch aperture, which would fit but would not operatively fit resulting in less than preferred operational condition.
A need is therefore identified for an improved receiver pin lock that accommodates apertures of the drawbar and receiver hitch of a plurality of sizes that is easy to utilize and does not require additional components that may otherwise become misplaced.